Digest of Federal Resource
Laws of Interest to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Water Rights - McCarran Amendment

Water Rights -- 43 U.S.C. 666, commonly known as the McCarran Amendment (66 Stat. 560;
adopted July 10, 1952) waives the sovereign immunity of the United States where there is a suit
designed to establish the rights to a river or other source of water, or the administration of such
rights, and the United States appears to own or be in the process of acquiring rights to any such
water. (The effect is to permit State courts to adjudicate Federal water rights claims under State
law.)